Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity and The Things We Made Up: Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle: 9780781407250: Christianbook.com
I read Francis Chan's Best selling book Crazy Love and it caused me to reexamine my life and get deeper into the word of God. I don't know what Chan's conclusions are. We may disagree, but he seems to be coming at it with the right attitude. I am hoping to read this soon after it comes out.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Dirty Jobs
Over the past couple of weeks I have been watching some DVDs of the TV show Dirty Jobs from the discovery channel. In this show the host Mike Rowe explores some of the hardest jobs by performing the work himself. These jobs entail small spaces, hard physical labor, and lots of grime. It only takes one episode to know that these are not the jobs that everyone is pining for. They are however very necessary.
This show has got me thinking about the dirty jobs that are mentioned in the Bible, and the job we are called to do as Christians. The Bible mentions a lot of dirty jobs. In fact God often used people mightily that had been busy with a dirty job. God even brought some of them down from there spot of comfort and ease to a place of humility, before he could use them.
Noah built a giant ark; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were herdsman. Joseph was brought from a place of honor in his Father’s household to a place as a servant and then to Jail. Moses was brought from a place of honor in the palace of Pharaoh to the back side of the Desert where he was tending sheep. David was a shepherd. We could go through Judges and see the humble origins of the men God used to lead his people for hundreds of years. Then we could look at the prophets and we would see men that were not from exceptional backgrounds, but were farmers and workers, doing the hard work that needed to be done.
Then we get to the New Testament and we see Jesus who was raised as an ordinary man doing the hard work of carpentry, “Yet for your sakes, he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9) Then we see the glaring example of the disciples, there was Matthew the Tax collector, but the others came from dirty jobs-- fisherman and the like.
It isn’t that God can’t use people with rich backgrounds; the fact is he chooses more often than not, to use people with ordinary or below normal backgrounds. He takes great joy in people that bring nothing to the table. There is a song that says, “He turns Zeros into Heroes”. In our weakness, He shows Himself strong.
Dealing with people is difficult, it takes patience and discipline. The very things that are learned doing hard physical work become assets in dealing with people. So we see that God uses hard dirty jobs for two reasons, to bring us closer to him as we come to the end of ourselves, and to teach us the skills that we will need to serve him in a greater capacity.
Andrew and Peter are a good example of being prepared, but being willing to give up everything in the present for the future. It says in Mark 1:17-18 “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” When we first read this, we are quick to pass over the fact that they left all that they had. We think they left a dirty job that no one really wants to do anyway. But that was their lively hood. It was all that they knew, but they left it for something better.
So here is the point, God can use you where ever you are. Some of us are doing dirty thankless jobs and we feel like we are making little difference in this world. We are in training; we are here to learn character. Others of us are in a place where we need to take a step of faith and follow the leading of God in a difficult direction. And most of us are trying to figure out which place we are in. It will take time to ascertain, but we must find what God wants us to do and do it.
This show has got me thinking about the dirty jobs that are mentioned in the Bible, and the job we are called to do as Christians. The Bible mentions a lot of dirty jobs. In fact God often used people mightily that had been busy with a dirty job. God even brought some of them down from there spot of comfort and ease to a place of humility, before he could use them.
Noah built a giant ark; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were herdsman. Joseph was brought from a place of honor in his Father’s household to a place as a servant and then to Jail. Moses was brought from a place of honor in the palace of Pharaoh to the back side of the Desert where he was tending sheep. David was a shepherd. We could go through Judges and see the humble origins of the men God used to lead his people for hundreds of years. Then we could look at the prophets and we would see men that were not from exceptional backgrounds, but were farmers and workers, doing the hard work that needed to be done.
Then we get to the New Testament and we see Jesus who was raised as an ordinary man doing the hard work of carpentry, “Yet for your sakes, he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9) Then we see the glaring example of the disciples, there was Matthew the Tax collector, but the others came from dirty jobs-- fisherman and the like.
It isn’t that God can’t use people with rich backgrounds; the fact is he chooses more often than not, to use people with ordinary or below normal backgrounds. He takes great joy in people that bring nothing to the table. There is a song that says, “He turns Zeros into Heroes”. In our weakness, He shows Himself strong.
Dealing with people is difficult, it takes patience and discipline. The very things that are learned doing hard physical work become assets in dealing with people. So we see that God uses hard dirty jobs for two reasons, to bring us closer to him as we come to the end of ourselves, and to teach us the skills that we will need to serve him in a greater capacity.
Andrew and Peter are a good example of being prepared, but being willing to give up everything in the present for the future. It says in Mark 1:17-18 “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” When we first read this, we are quick to pass over the fact that they left all that they had. We think they left a dirty job that no one really wants to do anyway. But that was their lively hood. It was all that they knew, but they left it for something better.
So here is the point, God can use you where ever you are. Some of us are doing dirty thankless jobs and we feel like we are making little difference in this world. We are in training; we are here to learn character. Others of us are in a place where we need to take a step of faith and follow the leading of God in a difficult direction. And most of us are trying to figure out which place we are in. It will take time to ascertain, but we must find what God wants us to do and do it.
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